We took a different approach in coming up with the final blend for the 2006 Russian River Pinot Noir. Historically, we have blended all of the remaining barrels from each of our Russian River sites and then subtracted varying parts from the blend. This year we tasted each section from each vineyard blind and came up with different possible blends. This procedure is more time consuming, and definitely leads to a more strict selection (for example, we left out some pretty high profile sections including the 777 from the Keefer Ranch and all of the remaining barrels from the Amber Ridge Vineyard. These lots found their way into the Sonoma County bottling), but we ultimately felt that it produced a far better wine. The final blend that we came up with was 46% Keefer Ranch, 30% Ewald Vineyard, and 24% Parsons’ Vineyard Pinot Noir. This wine is also a blend of numerous Pinot clones including Pommard, 2A, 114, 115, 777, and clone 23. Our hope, of course, was to produce a wine that was representative of the Russian River Valley and yet also demonstrated a level of complexity. What we ended up with is a Pinot Noir that shows remarkable richness, more black than red fruits, ample concentration, and, underlying it all, sufficient backbone to be a wine that will stand up to food. This is our most immediate appellation Pinot Noir and the one that is likely to drink best right off the bat.
Cases Produced: 789
Release Date: September 2007
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